Tag Archives: pizza

As I was about to embark on an eight-week nutrition challenge with other members of my gym, I decided there was no better time than now to load up on some not-so-diet-friendly grub, a last hoorah, if you will. A super strict paleo diet does not allow grains, sugar, alcohol or dairy products, so I needed to get my fill of those forbidden foods before the next eight weeks. Pizza was the first thing to come to mind. But I wasn’t feeling just your ordinary pizza with typical sauce, toppings and cheese; I was craving something different, unique and interesting.

It was a rare Saturday that my husband wasn’t working, so we slept in (all the way to 7:15, but after getting up before 5:00 am everyday, that is sleeping in.) We enjoyed a couple of cups of coffee and then had a late breakfast. We spent the afternoon with family so by 4:00 we were starving. I’d already established the diet blowout was going to go down, so off to Hurricane we went.

Mountain Pie Company (MPC) opened about four months ago with limited hours, and is still open just Wednesday through Saturday each week from 4:30 to 10:00 pm, midnight on Saturdays. I see the point of these limited hours for a small, new restaurant, but this place may want to rethink those limited hours once it gets cold. My first visit was probably in late May or early June. Luckily, we didn’t have to wait long for a table that night, but the dining room filled up rather quickly after we were seated. This doesn’t prove to be too difficult since the dining room is very small; I mean tiny.

The landlord has since built an uncovered patio off the side of the dining room, which was a huge plus this summer and fall. Everyone I’ve spoken to said whenever they’ve gone and anytime I’ve driven by, it was packed and people were waiting outside for a table. Good for MPC!

This last visit Marshall and WVU both had noon home games that day. We arrived right at 4:30 and were the first customers that weren’t family of one of the owners. It was a warmish afternoon so we chose to sit on the patio. In a matter of minutes, all the patio tables were full of MU fans with a WVU fan sprinkled here and there.

We both ordered a beverage- MPC’s seasonal draft selection, Southern Tier Pumking, for him and a Woodchuck Amber bottle for me. MPC has a decent selection of craft beers on tap and in bottles. But what I forgot about was their housemade sangria until I saw a pitcher of it arrive at a nearby table. Since I was forking the place, I felt it was my duty to give it a try. Neither my husband nor I are big wine drinkers, but we both LOVED this sangria. My husband likened it to grape juice. I didn’t completely disagree, but I definitely tasted other flavors. Our twenty-something server was ever so helpful when asked what exactly was in it, “a blend of a few wines and fruit juice, but I’m not sure which ones.” (Thanks for that detailed explanation!) But she assured us they did make it in-house and that it was very popular. At $6/glass and as tasty as it was, the (rather large) pitcher at $19 seemed to be the better value.

Enough about the drinks. (Order the sangria! You won’t be disappointed!) Let’s move on to the food. It’s called Mountain Pie Company for a reason…the “pies.” In this case, they are more like personal pies, as each is prepared on a crust of the Indian bread, naan, and are about eight to nine inch pizzas. I chose the Inigo Montoya pie and Husband chose the Meat and Cheese pie. More about those later. We started with stuffed mushrooms with a choice of sausage, crab or artichoke/spinach stuffing for $8.00. We chose the artichoke/spinach stuffing and enjoyed eight piping hot, bubbly, melty medium-sized mushrooms. The filing was a lot like that of spinach/artichoke dip found in other restaurants. I thought they could have used a little more artichokes and spinach, but who am I kidding; it’s the warm gooey cream cheese that makes the dip.

We also elected to share a bowl of lobster bisque for $3.00. It seemed like a great bargain since lobster is so pricy, but it was disappointing to say the least. Aside from it being just barely luke warm when it arrived at our table, it was very short on lobster. I wasn’t even sure if I even got any lobster in any of the bites I got. “Meh” is the best way for me to describe this soup.

Our pizzas arrived shortly after we finished our appetizers. My Inigo Montoya pizza consisted of steak, horseradish/chive cheese, mozzarella cheese and banana peppers on an alfredo/horseradish base drizzled with A1 sauce. If you like horseradish, you’ll really enjoy this pizza. I’m not a huge fan of A1 sauce, but it was a very nice addition and I was glad I didn’t ask for it to be nixed like I’d initially thought.

The Meat and Cheese pie didn’t have the exceptionally good looks that my pizza had, but it sure made up for it in flavor. Husband likes it spicy, so he added ghost pepper cheese. (Though the ghost pepper is the hottest pepper in the world, this cheese was more on the heat level of a jalepeno or a serrano.) There was enough of each meat to taste them individually without the pizza being too meaty or too greasy.

On our previous visit, we got the Pompei with spicy sausage, shrimp, ghost pepper cheese, gorgonzola, red onion and jalepenos on a garlic sauce. This should light up anyone’s mouth, but surprisingly, it wasn’t as hot as expected, but it was very flavorful. We also got the Steak and Gorgonzola pie. Other than the obvious, toppings include red onion, tomatoes, banana peppers on a tomato sauce. We enjoyed both pizzas, but agreed they could have been cooked a little longer so that the crust was crisper. The second time around I noticed more crispness to the crust. Other interesting pizza choices are Buffalo Mountain with grilled chicken, gorgonzola and mozzarella on a white sauce and the Freaky Greek with feta, tomatoes, spinach, red peppers, kalamata olives on an olive oil base. You can also create your own pizza from an extensive list of toppings and sauces.

Pizzas might be MPC’s specialty, but that’s not all that’s on the menu. Other appetizers include tomatoes with your choice of the same mushroom stuffings, wings with your choice of four sauces, a cheesy Asiago bread dip, Mountain Pie Cheese (ghost pepper cheese melted on toast) or Hot Mountain Dip, MPC’s version of buffalo chicken dip (you know, that pot luck favorite made with cream cheese, chicken and hot sauce.) There are also a few interesting salads such as a wedge salad with blue cheese dressing, bacon and tomatoes, the Feta World Peace (get it?), mixed greens with feta, walnuts and cranberries and raspberry vinaigrette, and the Mountain Goat which is roma tomatoes sliced and stuffed with goat cheese and drizzled with balsamic vinegar.

Entrees include Mountain Lion, which is actually marinated pork loin served with pierogies. Again, interesting…. Also on the entree’ menu is lasagna, penne pasta with your choice of sauce and meat and M.P.C.M.C., a fancy mac ‘n cheese to which you can add chicken if you’d like.

MPC is unique and interesting as I stated more than once. I like this place and I will eat here again, several times, and I will continue to explore the other unique and interesting items on the menu. FOUR FORKS.

I have heard a lot about the Fayetteville incarnation of Pies & Pints but since girls who can’t swim shouldn’t be whitewater rafting, I never had an occasion to sample their fare. All the comments I heard were positive so I was excited to try the Charleston location. Crowds and busy schedules delayed the experience but a birthday celebration with my two BFFs finally got me there.

Here’s a sampling of the banter at our table:

Server: Can I start you ladies off with a beer or cocktail tonight? We are featuring blah blah blah on tap.

Friend #1: I’m pregnant so I’ll have water.

Server: Congratulations! Would you like lemon with that?

Friend #1: No thank you.

Me: I’m not pregnant so I’ll have a Michelob Ultra. And you can congratulate me for that.

Server: Congratulations! (laughter all around at my funny joke)

There were several mouth-watering menu items that caught my eye but I kept going back to the Thai Pie – shrimp, curry, toasted coconut, and basil. I’m a sucker for that sort of stuff. My friends ordered the eggplant pizza and the plain ol’ pepperoni. Our server was friendly, funny and kind enough to suggest we order a large and do the “half and half” for two of our choices which would result in a bigger pizza for less dough. So we did. The 10” small pizzas are still too large for me to eat at one sitting (heck, who am I kidding? I could eat it all at one sitting, I just shouldn’t!) and are priced around $12. The 16” large pizzas yield 8 large slices for around $22.

One friend ordered the small spinach salad for $7 which was definitely large enough to share. The ingredients appeared to be very fresh and the add-ons were plentiful. Pies & Pints also offers appetizers, sandwiches and a nice beer selection.

My pizza was De. Lish. Us. The crust was fabulous – on the thin side and crispy. The shrimp had a great flavor and the mild curry and coconut notes came through nicely. I ate two slices at the restaurant and took two home with me which, paired with a salad, was enough for two meals. Reportedly, the eggplant and roasted red pepper pie was also delicious but I didn’t put on a pouty face to try to snag a bite. The texture of eggplant is a turn-off to me.

We ended the meal with house-made tiramisu for $4.50. It was made in individual serving dishes and was a nice portion size for the price. It was good, but the texture was a bit grainy. Honestly, I like Olive Garden’s better even though I know they probably get that from US Foodservice. It’s not a problem for me, though…I’ll just fill up more on that delicious pizza!

I’m gonna do that thing that some of you may not like: I’m gonna compare. I just can’t help it. I felt the creativity of the pizzas at Pies & Pints was comparable to that at Lola’s but the menu was more extensive. Lola’s cramped quarters could be labeled “intimate” but I felt a crowded and was very aware of the conversations around me. I really enjoyed the extra elbow room at Pies & Pints. Pricewise, they are about the same. I liked the crust at Pies & Pints better – it was thinner and didn’t have the cornmeal dusting.

If you are a regular at Myrtle Beach, you are probably familiar with The Filling Station. Serving up a pizza buffet at almost ridiculously low prices has been their recipe for success for three decades. Their location on Kings Highway and 16th Avenue North was a popular destination for poor college kids and families alike. If you look for The Filling Station now, however, you may run into the same problems we did.

As an iPhone addict, I don’t worry about getting directions or planning in too much detail for trips. I can google whatever I need and use the GPS feature to find it. We googled “The Filling Station” and clicked on “Directions”. My phone was telling me to go in a different direction than I expected. More googling ensued and we determined they had moved. The new location is 1913 Mr. Joe White Ave (10th & 11th Ave. North). No problem – my GPS will take us straight there.

Ron and I thought we’d check out the recently opened Capitol Street Grille after work one day. We work a 7:30 to 4:00 schedule so we get off early enough to enjoy happy hour at most establishments. And if we are driving back to the Valley, we avoid most of the traffic. Two great reasons to get up early.

If you’ll recall, there was an article in the Daily Mail back in October singing the praises of Capitol Street Grille. It really doesn’t pay to believe everything you read in the paper. In my opinion, they are more interested in advertising revenue than accuracy when it comes to the Food and Dining section.

(The recent inclement weather, New Year’s resolutions to lose weight, and spending cutbacks have combined to make for a slow start to 2010 for the Fork You Crew. Therefore I bring you another review that will only be useful if (you) live near St. Augustine or plan to travel there.)

Since this was our third trip to the nation’s oldest city, we were familiar with this restaurant and planned to get some pizza the first night of our stay. As you can see from the photo, Ron was sporting his Mountaineer apparel. He loves to “connect” with other WVU fans and often gives a fist-in-the-air to other men also wearing the blue and gold.

Another shop is open at the Shops of Kanawha, formerly known as the Kanawha Mall: Piro Pizzeria.

Piro’s offers salads, subs, spaghetti & meatballs, calzones and, of course, pizza. Prices are in the neighborhood of $6 – $9 with most pizzas running between $10 and $15, depending on the size and toppings. Pizza is also available by the slice.

Hours are 11:00 am – 9:00 pm Monday through Saturday and noon – 7:00 pm on Sundays. (Their website says they are closed on Sundays, but that is no longer true.)

More Food Choices in South Charleston

South Charleston welcomes another new restaurant this week: The Happy Days Cafe.

Happy Days Cafe is located on D Street in South Charleston. The cafe, which is an ice cream and sandwich shop with a ’50s and ’60s theme, will also feature Greenlee Gourmet Popcorn, formerly sold from the now vacant space next door. When this space opened up, Greenlee opted to move and expand.

With seating for 51 hungry customers, the menu features sandwiches, daily soup specials, house-made BBQ sammies, and hot dogs – with homemade sauce and slaw. Stanton better get to D Street tout de suite! (Perhaps we can once again join forces for our third joint review.) To wash it down: shakes, floats and flavored Coca Cola.

Stop by between the hours of 10 am and 8 pm, Monday through Friday and check it out.

Say goodbye to Bennigan’s…Again

Moroccan Pizza Buffet Closes

One of the local lunch spots on Fork You’s regular rotation has closed.

Sure it’s kind of a quirky combination: all-you-can-eat pizza and Moroccan food, but endless yummy pizza at a great price should have been bringing nearby state workers through the doors in droves. Unfortunately, despite the seemingly busy lunch crowds, the Morocco Meditteranean Cuisine and Pizza is no more. Misty & I will definitely miss their spinach/feta pizza.